Mudborne

I just 100%'d this game and cannot recommend this game enough! I never write reviews but had to for this game! It seemed to answer so many things I find a little annoying about other sims like Stardew etc. The inventory/storage management definitely spoilt me (especially the cauldron upgrade!!), the fast travel upgrades were also ridiculously useful!! The travelling was a little tedious to start but once I'd realised you could respawn, and then with subsequent upgrades it was a complete non-issue.
This is a game made by people who love gaming and that's so so clear throughout playing. One thing that would have been useful late-game is maybe some kind of incense or something? If you are going for 100% then it can get kinda tricky to track down the frogs you need as there's so many roaming around (if you're smart and keep two of each to start with then not an issue), so a way of attracting those specific frogs would have been nice! But honestly it never took too long to find them, and was a good forced break in objectives.
Overall such a fun game! I wish I could delete my memory of this game so I could play it all over again, 10000% worth playing!

if cozy games are easy then why i got five wiki tabs open for a game about breeding frogs

I work in a microbiology lab making bacterial mutants for a living so I've just realized that this game is a more fun version of my career

Also, incredible vibes and ambiance, the game mechanics and puzzles are adequately difficult without being frustrating, and there's almost infinite combinations of funky little frogs. 10/10 would mutate frogs again.

Reviewing this game is simple. It's cheap, has massive depth, and you can play it very casually.
But most of all:
"For APICO, donations are made to bee, beekeeping, pollinator and conservation-based charities. For Snacktorio donations will be made to various hunger charities and foodbanks. For Mudborne it will be amphibian, wetlands, and environmental charities."

UPDATE: I had the wrong idea on what this game was about. It is a puzzle game in its core and it can be quite hard. In my first run it felt sluggish, like I was playing the game the wrong way, so I started over and skipped trying to make a nice "base" and skipped organizing. And that, helped a lot. My progression went much much smoother and I finally understood what the game was about. Be warned though, this is not the game you finish in a few hours. It looks small, but it is actually huge.
Old review:
To much running around and organizing your stuff, and to little frog action! It quickly gets boring when you realize that half of your time is just you trying to organize chaos, or just you running back and fourth. After 6 hours of playtime I am still not even on the second frog, and that kills me. I might just start over and try again, but for being such a cute game, this is far from easy and laid back.
I will still recommend it though, just be aware!

Judging by the number of reviews, this is pretty much a hidden gem. I bought it on a whim because the style looked cute, but don’t be fooled by the aesthetics - Mudborne is a really good puzzle game with sci-fi touches, albeit set in a world of frogs. Twelve hours in, I’d say I’m about a third of the way through, definitely good value for money.
EDIT: Afer 100% (all achievs) in around 40 hrs, I can really confirm that this is a great game, all the clues are in the game itself and I quite enjoyed the story! End game gets easier when you have all the mushrooms haha

Huge and Fun Puzzle Game
When I got this game, I was hoping to play something like Factorio with frogs at best, but deep inside I expected a cute but shallow game with frog aesthetics, something simple to kill an evening or two. What I did not expect was that this game would have such a satisfying gameplay loop, a huge world map, and a ton of puzzles to solve!
I have played this game for almost 20 hours, and I can definitely say that I enjoyed it. Time was flying when I was in Mudborne. The main thing is how I always had the feeling of, "Oh, okay, let me try this thing out, let me get a new frog, I will finish this task, play just 5 more minutes..." And then, every single time, those 5 minutes became hours without me even noticing.
There is a constant feeling of being rewarded for every small step. Hey, you have unlocked a new critter! Oh, a new variation of a frog! Or here is a new portal, a new blueprint, a new piece of lore, a new area... There is always something new to anticipate, sometimes even without knowing exactly what it will be! It is such a perfect game to get hooked on and immersed in.
The puzzles are also great. You are trying to find optimal ways to get the required species, discover new mushrooms and the conditions needed to grow them, experiment, and move forward. The puzzles are not that hard. They are mostly just arithmetic plus finding the cheapest way to achieve your goal with the tools you have at your disposal at the moment. This brings a bit of Factorio-like engineering satisfaction to the game.
But with all of these good things, there is another important part...
I will not even try to finish this game
You see, the game is designed to be cozy. Coziness implies that it is chill. Relaxed. Slow. Too slow.
There are intentional limits to the speed of crafting anything. Wait a minute for the mushrooms to grow. Then a minute for the tadpoles to mutate. Then a minute for them to grow. Then catch them and repeat again. This is some kind of core gameplay element that repeats throughout the whole game, and eventually, after becoming predictable, it becomes tiring.
I told you that the map is huge? That's cool. But there are so many obstacles on your way that navigating through this world requires a map. And even with a map, it is pure anger, because there are obstacles that force you to circle around the whole map just to get to the other side of a bridge. At first, it feels like a good part of puzzle exploration, but on every next trip to that location, it feels like a waste of time.
And sometimes you need to find mushrooms, and they can grow only in very specific locations. So you spend a huge amount of time going there, then realize that the weather is not appropriate, and your bed is far away. So you return, sleep, wait, and go back there again. And what if you forgot to bring something? Is there fast travel, maybe?
There is not a fast travel system, but... eh... a bit-faster-than-walking travel. There are rare portals, and they make things better, but you need to get to that portal network first. And the portals are not even next to each other! You still climb stairs, jump on rocks, and walk around just to get from one portal to another. And no one told you that you would be teleported directly to your destination! So walk more! You can also travel to your last spawn point, but only one way, and that is not always convenient.
And you know how bad it is when you need to find some specific species of frog? The one that you spent an hour creating and now want to use for some purpose? Good luck finding it on your screen, because the colors repeat too often, and the sprites have only a couple of pixels of difference. Try to catch that one frog you need. Maybe it will not even spawn at your location, so have fun wandering the map.
Discovery VS Repetition
So, at first, EVERYTHING, every small step, is tied to a huge shiny discovery. Everything is new. You explore new places, new puzzles, new mechanics. Everything is so engaging, and you are never forced to do the same thing again!
But then, at some point, there is less sense of finding something new and more of an "Ah, I guess I need to go to location X to find something..." And the more I played, the less satisfying discovery became, and the more backtracking was placed on my shoulders.
My journey ended when, one day, I wanted to play this game and suddenly realized that it felt like a full-time job, not relaxing enjoyment. And then I realized that I did not want to come back. Weeks later, I still feel reluctant to continue. The game is too big for the foundation it was built upon. The game is intentionally too slow, in places where it should offer you more ways to skip the routine.
Judging by achievement rates, around 7% of players got to the point where I gave up. And around 4% cared enough to complete the game. It just had to be shorter to be perfect. But what started as perfect now feels like a negative review.
Anyway, pick it up, explore while it is fun, and move on.